Loving my new solar-powered fountain

I’m loving my new solar-powered fountain, which gives me the soothing sounds of water outside my office window without running up my electric bill. And I feel connected to nature, as the fountain begins running in the morning only after the sun comes up. Because it has a 6-volt battery that gets charged up during the day, it runs far into the night or early next morning before running out of steam.

(When you live in Southern California, you can buy a solar-powered fountain with winter coming on and no one will think you’re loony.)

But gosh this fountain was hard to find. Once I decided I had to have a solar fountain, I checked at four local garden shops and OSH. Everyone I spoke with thought a solar-powered fountain was a dandy idea, but no one carried them. Online, I found a nice-looking one at Gaiam, but as I dug deeper into the Internet, the reviews by other purchasers of that style weren’t very glowing.

Finally, I stumbled across the fountain at my local Home Depot. It was sitting dry and dejected off to the side, and it turns out it was special-ordered for a customer who never picked it up. The 6-by-10-inch solar panel caught my eye, and I got the garden staff to fill the fountain with water to test it out. The panel had been sitting in the sun for who knows how long, and so was fully charged, and the water started gurgling immediately. It seemed like magic.

I bought the 30-inch-high, granite-looking resin thing for $220 (way too much!), with the guarantee that I could bring it back if it didn’t work out right. But it has no label, no box, no instruction manual, no nothing. I can’t find it anywhere on the Internet.

If you know of a good source for solar-powered fountains, please comment below.

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